About

Green Bay
School is a full primary state school catering for Years 0-8. Located in
West Auckland between New Lynn and Titirangi. The school is Decile 7,
with a student ethnic composition of 63% European, 14% Maori, 8% Pacific Island
and 12% Asian. Our community is socio-economically diverse, including
families from a wide range of backgrounds. Some families have lived in
Green Bay for generations, while there is also a current trend for Green Bay to
be a “suburb of choice” for young families to settle in. Adding to this
interesting mix are ‘alternative’ or ‘green’ lifestyle families. Our
families have a stated preference for educating the whole child, which means we
teach all of the New Zealand curriculum and afford students many different
types of opportunities for enriching their learning.

Our School Vision is Mauri tu marui ora, Live trees stand up. Freely translated the Vision is about seizing opportunity. The values which our School Vision embraces are Respect, Initiative and Positivity. At school, these values are expressed as Expectations and they are shared by parents, staff and students; following an extensive consultation process.

Staffing comprises the Principal, two Associate Principals, 3 Year 7/8 teachers, 5 Year 4/5/6 teachers, 4 Year 3/4 teachers, 4 Year 1/2 teachers and 4 Year 0/1 teachers depending on student numbers. The Associates’ roles are to mentor and support teachers, and support special needs learning programmes. We offer special needs programmes such as English as a Second Language (ESOL), Rainbow Reading, Lexia, Phonics and Reading Recovery. Staff who have expertise in languages are asked to share this with students. Gifted & Talented students benefit from identification and planning differentiation to enhance their learning.

As well as strengths in teaching Literacy and Mathematics, the school is a lead school in Science & Technology education. Every student from Year 2 to Year 8 attends a weekly specialist programme in Science. Design Technology is integrated into high interest topics of work which enables students to have opportunities to develop technological literacy, enterprise and entrepreneurship, with class visits to work in a special multi-purpose Technology Room learning skills to enable students to participate in a futures-focussed 21st Century environment. Intermediate students from Kauri syndicate have a special opportunity to do technology lessons over in the specialist rooms at the adjacent Green Bay High School. This gives them a great opportunity to become accustomed to a high school environment and aids transition in the Year 9 year.

Many curriculum subjects are integrated into learning themes or topics, with a main focus each year on a major and minor curriculum area. Integrated topics use an Inquiry Learning approach called “Learning Pathways”, which helps students learn to ask powerful learning questions and helps them learn the research skills to find answers to their questions. The various curricula skills are woven in to this programme by skilful teachers. We aim for depth of learning rather than trying to pay lip-services to the curriculum. Neither do we routinely break up the school day into discrete curricula subjects as this has the effect of compartmentalising knowledge rather than helping students make links. We incorporate Thinking Skills and digital technologies with the research skills. Our aim is to develop independent life-long learners and to engage all students whatever their level to make learning fun and interesting.

ICT (Information Communication Technologies) is used as a tool to further learning in all curriculum areas. The school has a beautiful ICT suite as well as computers in each classroom.

Physical Education and Sports programmes are supported by a Sports Activator who works alongside and helps teachers to provide high quality P.E. lessons. There are many varied opportunities for students to participate in lunchtime games and sports activities, and sports team training and tournaments.

A ‘Head Start’ programme is operating in the Junior School to give the best possible transition into school. This attracts additional new enrolments. Students stay in the Head Start classroom until the teacher considers they are developmentally ready for a more formal academic programme. The length of this varies according to an individual student’s readiness.

We are an “Enviro School” which means we are building children’s awareness of the need for conservation, sustainability and looking after the environment. This awareness and knowledge will be even more sought after of future citizens and knowledge-economy employment sectors. Students get involved in looking after the school environment, recycling systems, problem solving, and futures-thinking. There are many Enviro learning resources in the school – chickens, worm farms, organic gardens, orchards, a native plant walkway with a Taniwha class seating area, and a Rongoa Garden designed by students featuring Maori medicinal plants and an outdoor classroom.

Green Bay School provides a supportive and collaborative learning environment. We have a dedicated and excellent staff. Teachers are highly effective, and have a great love of children. Staff enjoy working here and experience a high degree of job satisfaction. Many staff have remained at the school for a considerable number of years, balanced with a number of new staff who bring in fresh ideas. Everyone is passionate about their jobs and are always striving to find ways of improving the quality of their work.

We look forward to your further enquiries about our school and hope we have a chance to meet you in person.